


Lallybroch's Newest Healer

by writtenthroughtime



Series: WTT's Posts for ImagineClaireandJamie [8]
Category: Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Alternate Universe, Faith Lives AU, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 09:55:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6799201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writtenthroughtime/pseuds/writtenthroughtime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt:<br/>Life-ruiners you added two more amongst your midst?? Yesterday Claire missing Jamie and Bree overhearing broke my heart, and now today you give us a taste of Faith then rip it away! Please send something fluffy!! A rewrite of Faith the vet where she really is a vet and not a dream???? I'll be waiting in my tears</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lallybroch's Newest Healer

“That’s it, good girl! Rabbie, go fetch me a pail of warm water! Quickly!” I yelled, pushing my sweat soaked hair out of my face with my elbow.

Blood and fluid soaked the edges of my sleeves as my hands delved deeper into the patient before me. This wasn’t their first birth, but no birth was safe or easy, even for experienced mothers such as this one.

Da sat holding Buttercup’s tawny head, stroking her mane in attempts to keep her calm. I knew this would be difficult. One foal was hard enough; an anomaly of two foals, one of which has decided to make their entrance hooves first was even more so.

A whimpering neigh came from Buttercup as a contraction hit, and the foal’s hooves cut into her tender flesh.

“I know it hurts. I’m sorry Buttercup. Soon we’ll have your little one out and beside its brother against your side.”

“Lass, what if ye canna get the foal out in time?” Da asked, worry clouding his voice. This was Mam’s favorite horse. I couldn’t let something happen to her.

I shook my head, “I canna think that way, Da. I have to do everything I can just as Mam taught me.”

“I wish yer Mam were here lass.” Da went back to muttering in Gaelic attempting to soothe Buttercup even further.

“So do I,” I whispered.

Mam had gone to Young Jamie’s estate to help his wife give birth to her first born. She refused to take Buttercup in her advanced state fearing she would give birth while there. The timing and Mam’s intuition wasna lost on me.

It felt like several hours later, when Rabbie arrived with a bucket of warm water and a clean cloth. Perfect timing. The foal that had been grieving Buttercup slid into my lap the moment he arrived.

Quickly and carefully, I began cleaning off the foal, taking special care of its tiny, see-through ears and delicate nose. Buttercup lay unmoving, save for her still labored breathing.

“Rabbie, take the filly,” I said urgently. I needed to find and repair the damage done to Buttercup before it was too late.

“What?” He said, stupidly.

“Oh for the love of… Here!” I said, unceremoniously shoving the newborn—still swaddled in cloths—into his arms.

“Da, can ye keep talking to Buttercup? She seems to relax more when ye speak to her,” I looked up and saw him nod.

I smiled as he began to whisper words of encouragement to her still, telling her of the bonnie bairns she now had.

I worked tirelessly, sweat began to run into my eyes as I cleaned, felt, and stitched together the torn areas inside Buttercup. When the final tear was closed and her blood no longer freely flowed, Buttercup’s body sagged into the hay beneath her, and her breaths evened out.

“A ghraidh, she fell asleep,” Da whispered, “Place her bairns against her to give her more peace. There’s naught more ye can do for her now.”

I nodded, and helped Rabbie take the swaddling off both of the newborns; one male, one female, one as pure white as Donas, the other the same tawny shade as his mother with an addition of white down his face.

Donas stamped and whinnied from his stall; only Da would be daft enough to go over and try to calm the beast at a time like this.

“Ach, Donas they’re a braw bunch and bonnie,” he said with a long, gentle stroke down the horse’s face.

The horse whinnied again.

Da laughed and opened the stall door. “Be on wi’ ye then! Tend to yer family.”

Rabbie bolted for the door, not bothering to open the bottom half and clumsily fell over in his haste to get away from the stallion.

With more tenderness than I believed possible from Donas, he nuzzled Buttercup’s face and lowered himself beside her, protecting his little family.

“Come then _mo nighean donn_ , yer Mam may be back by now. It’s nearly sunset,” Da said, throwing an arm around my shoulders.

We walked back towards the big house in silence. I tipped my head back to soak in what was left of the early spring sun.

“Ye did a bonnie job in there, Faith. Yer Mam will be verra proud when ye tell her.”

I grinned. “Ye really think so?”

“Och, aye!” Da exclaimed, squeezing my shoulder. “This was yer first solo birth, and twins at that. Ye may only be sixteen, but yer talented beyond yer years.”

I blushed and hid my face in the side of his chest. “Thank ye, Da.”

I felt him kiss the top of my head, “I’m so verra proud of ye, Faith. Every day you, yer sister and brother fill me with more joy than I thought possible. Seeing ye in action, and so like yer Mam, made my heart swell with pride.”

I didn’t know what to say to him. In place of words, I stopped walking and hugged him—my head only coming to the center of his chest.

“ _Tha gaol agam ort_ , Da.”

“I love ye too. So much, Faith.” With a squeeze, Da let me go, and resumed his spot at my side, arm around my shoulders and guided me back towards the house.

Mam was taking off her gloves in the front room when we arrived. She looked tired, but happy. Young Jamie’s bairn must have been an easy birth.

“Ah _mo Sorcha_ ,” Da said as he leaned down to kiss her. “How’s the new bairn and parents?”

“Tired, but happy. They have a little boy,” Mam said with a smile. “What have the two of you been up to the past few days?”

“Ye’ll never believe the day we’ve had, Sassenach,” Da said, his smile stretched from ear to ear.

“Oh? Are you going to tell me or do I have to guess?” Ma said, her own smile full of mischief.

“Ye will no longer be the only healer about our estate.”

That’s all he had to say for Mam to rush over and pull into a suffocating hug. “What was it like? What did you do? Who did you help?” She asked excitedly, more questions pouring from her with little to no breaths in-between.

“Mama, yer crushing me!” I squeaked out.

“Sorry,” she said, never letting go, just placing herself at arm’s length away. “Please tell me everything.”

So I did, well we did. Da helped when he felt I was glossing over the details.

“Twins!” Mam’s eyes were wide with shock. “I knew she felt off last time I checked but I thought the foal was just turned about the wrong way. And to think, she was carrying twins!”

“Aye. One colt, one filly. We still haven’t picked out names,” I said to her.

“I believe _Earbsa_ for the filly will be appropriate,” Da said with a wink.

“You want to name her Faith?” Mam questioned.

He nodded. “Only seems fitting since she was the one that gave ye the most grief, and ye saved her and Buttercup.”

I beamed. “Ok then _Earbsa_ it is, and for the colt? _Plathadh_?”

“ _Plathadh_?” Mam wrinkled her nose and Da laughed.

“Ye ken, for the flash of white down his face?” I asked.

“I think it’s a fine name for the colt. Yer Mam doesna—”

“What’s wrong with an English name?” Mam interrupted. “All of the horses since Buttercup have had Gaelic names, and you know some of them I can’t pronounce properly,” she said with a scowl.

Da threw his head back and laughed. “Then what would you like to name him, Sassenach?”

“Blake,” she said, matter of factly.

“Blake?”

“Yes, it means light and dark.”

“I like it, Da.”

Da threw his hands up in defeat, “I canna win against my brown haired lasses.”

I smiled, as did Mam.


End file.
